On the Bias

This posting has been a long time in the making! Whew! It's finally done! You will notice that the fabric changes from green to purple and then back to green in the pictures. There's a story behind that--I originally did that section of the instructions in a video. I thought it would be much easier to "show" how to do that part than to "tell." Anyway, the video would not upload. Not on this computer, not on my husbands. I tried 100 different things, still no go. So, I went and bought some purple fabric (one day I will make a purple quilt) to re-do the movie. Certainly, it was something I did! The movie STILL wouldn't upload. But, this time, I also took pictures, just in case. So, you get to see the still pictures and hopefully, my explanations are good enough. As always, ask questions if you need clarification!

This posting is a how-to on making bias strips for binding a quilt. Bias strips can come in handy for binding a quilt and also if you are appliqueing vines or other strippy things that can curve. It is a must to use if the border of your quilt has curves or even rounded corners. Bias is fabric cut on the diagonal from the weave of the fabric. This gives the fabric a tiny bit of stretch, which can make it easier to manage, go around curves, and lay flat better.

First of all take one yard of fabric and press out the creases. Lay it on your cutting board right side down.

Next, fold the fabric so that the bottom edge meets the side edge. This turns your fabric into a sort-of traingle. Turn your fabric so that the folded edge is at the bottom of your mat, closest to you.

Then fold the fabric over two or three times so that it's a manageable width, keeping the folded edge even and at the bottom, nearest you. When I say manageable width, it should all fit under the length of your ruler.

The first cut you make will be along the folded edge. I make my bias 2 1/2" wide so the first strip that I cut on the fold is 1 1/4" wide. When that piece is unfolded it will measure 2 1/2" wide.

Cut 2 1/2" wide strips up the entire piece of fabric until you get to pieces so small they'd only be good for your scrap pile.

Next, you're going to take all of your strips and cut the ends into a 45 degree angle. Start by taking 4 or 5 strips and stacking them on top of each other, ends together. Some of the strips will be shorter than others or angles will be different. Match up the ends as close as you can. Make sure you stack each fabric with right sides up.

Find the 45 degree line on your ruler. Line this up with the bottom of your strips. Make sure that the ends of the strips (the underneath ones, too) will all get the same cut.

Make the cut, but don't move your ruler when you're done. Just slide it over a bit. Try and keep the angle of it in the same spot. Now, take the strips out from underneath the ruler, keep them right sides up, and turn them around so the other ends are in front of you. (this is where a video would be helpful--sorry). If you take both ends of the strips and turn them like a steering wheel, does that visual help?

Now, line up those ends of the strips. Make sure they're all together. You might need to scoot down some of the shorter pieces so all the ends are together. All of the ends will need to be cut to the same 45 degree angle.

Slide the ruler back over this end of the strips. Make sure the angle of the ruler has not changed. Put the 45 degree line at the bottom of the strips and make the cut.

If the ends of all of the strips are cut with the same angle, you will be able to sew them together without worrying if the angles will match up. Because they will.

Now it's time to sew all of those strips together. Use a 5/8" seam allowance. Notice the overhang when the strips meet up.

Make sure that your needle goes in where the two strips meet and the edge is along your 5/8" marking.

After all of your strips are sewn together, press the seams open.

Along one edge, press a 1/4" hem. This will be your starting end when sewing the binding onto your quilt. Press the entire strip in half, lengthwise. For the how-to on sewing binding onto your quilt, click here.

If you want, snip off the stragglers.

Roll your binding up so it's manageable to work with. One yard of fabric makes over 14 yards (500"+) of 2 1/2" wide bias. This is enough to bind a King-size quilt. PLENTY!

You do NOT have to use fabric cut on the bias to bind your quilt if the sides and corners are straight. Yes, it does look better and is easier to manage, but it is not necessary. If the perfect fabric for your binding is already cut on the weave of the fabric and you can't or don't want to buy more, then use what you have.

Bound with Love

This is a tutorial on "how to bind a quilt." I'm sure there are many ways to do this--but this is how I do it.

This red quilt is one of my favorites. I made the top at a quilting seminar in Monterrey Mexico, put on by the Monterrey Quilter's Guild. I'm embarrassed to say that the top was finished a few years ago and the quilting and binding was finally done this past week. Yes, (confession time) I'm human and somewhat of a procrastinator.

Let's start: I laid the quilt out on top of my bed. It measures 86 X 68--an average twin size.

I trimmed the extra batting and backing from around the quilt. Don't worry--I didn't cut the quilt on the bed but even if I would have it would have been OK. The quilt that's on my bed is ugly and was made in China or India or somewhere. The dentist's kids teeth are always rotten and the quilter's bed always has an old raggedy, foreign-made quilt on it.

The bias strips are ready to go--including a pressed hem (not stitched) on the starting end. If you were to unfold this strip vertically, you would see the pressing goes all along the edge. (We'll have a tutorial on making bias strips in the near future.)

In this picture, I've laid out the strip on the edge of the quilt so you can see how the selvage edges meet up. The folded edge of the strip is closest to the center of the quilt. You will start stitching the binding about 6 inches down from the diagonal pressed edge. Just leave the top 6 inches loose for now.

In this picture it shows that I'm starting to stitch the binding to the quilt. Stitch the binding to the top of the quilt. It will be folded over and tacked down on the back. Sometimes when you're sewing on the binding you get a little slack on the top of the binding strip. Try to keep pulling the front and back evenly as you go, but if you still get some slack, it's OK to catch a little wrinkle in the top layer of the strip as you go. After all, it will be hidden in the inside of the binding when you're done.

This is the part that makes people nervous--the dreaded corner!!! Don't worry--it's not that hard, I promise! Pull out and dust off your sewing gauge. C'mon I know you have one! It's one of those notions that comes standard in every sewing kit and you always wonder what you do with it. Use it to measure 1/4 inch in from the corner. Easy so far!

Now mark it with a pencil. Pencil's OK to use on a quilt. You can use a fancy disappearing ink pen, but a pencil works just fine--no one will see it.

I like to stick a pin into the pencil spot, perpendicular to the stitching so if I run over it, it's not a big deal for my needle. The pin is only marking your stopping place. Put the binding strip back down with the head of the pin sticking out so you can see it. Stitch slow, it's not a race. When your needle gets to the spot where the pin goes in, stop and back stitch 2 or 3 stitches, pull the pin out and then remove the quilt from under the sewing machine. Clip your threads. This is not continuous sewing--this is done a side at a time.

The place where you have stopped sewing is going to be named point A. Place your sewing gauge at point A and measure horizontally to the edge of the binding. Slide the orange place-keeper (I'm sure this has an official name--don't know what it is) to the fold of the binding strip to measure the width from the stitching to the edge.

Now turn your gauge vertically with the edge of the gauge at point A. Your orange slider should still be in place from the last picture. Where your orange slider ends up is officially point B. Make sure it's 1/4 inch in from the selvage edge--right in line with your previous stitching. You all with me so far?

Now mark that spot with your pencil. Just a little dot will do.

Put a pin into point B, pushing it about halfway through so it will stay. You can skip the pencil marking of point B and just put a pin in place then--no problem.

Lift up the strip with the pin in it and put point B directly over point A. Push the pin through point A, joining the two points together. The pin only goes through the strip at point B--at point A it goes through the quilt only. I hope that clarifies and doesn't confuse (look at the picture).

Now, the easiest part yet! With the pin in place, turn the strip so it's ready to be sewn down the next side. Make sure that none of the binding strip is sneaking in underneath. Do NOT worry if your diagonal lines don't look straight and even. The most important thing is lining up point A and B so that the diagonal line will look straight after it's done.

Put your sewing machine needle into the exact same place where your pin was. Now you're ready to sew the next side. See, not hard at all. Notice that the fabric in the corner hangs over the edge a bit--that means you did it right. Don't try to line that up or you won't have enough fabric to fold it over later. You will do all four corners the same with finding point A and B, then joining them and continuing down the next side.

When you have sewn all four sides and all four corners you're going to need to know how to end it. Yes, you're almost ready to end it! You're coming up on the end of your binding strip that you kept loose. You need to tuck the strip you're working with inside the loose strip where you started. Just straighten it out with your fingers and line it up as best as you can--pin it in place if you need to. Trim the inner piece's end a bit so there's only a couple of inches inside. (Don't trim it too short--watch the short side of the diagonal!) Then just sew through all four layers to attach it to the quilt all at once. You're done with the machine part!

I always tack my binding strip to the back by hand. I could probably do it on my machine but I can hide it better if I do it by hand. And it gives me something to keep my hands busy with while I watch TV. This is what the corner looks like before it's turned to the back to be tacked down.

Fold one side of the binding strip to the back of the quilt. Stick a pin in it to hold it in place. Then fold over the adjoining side to the back of the quilt. This will make your mitered diagonal line on the back and the front of the quilt. Check it out--cool, huh?

It's ready to be hand-stitched now. I usually pin only the corners down before I start-- just to hold them in place. And I'm sure you can notice that this corner isn't lined up perfectly. I should've taken the pin out and slid it over a bit before I took the picture. It was fixed before I stitched--promise!

When I hand-stitch binding, I hide all of my knots in the seam allowance (the space between the stitches and the edge). I use doubled thread, for strength, and tie a knot in the end. I start by putting the needle through the back of the seam allowance and pull it through to the yellow (quilt back) right where the stitches are. The knot ends up on the inside, underneath the seam allowance. I put the needle through a little bit of the red--along the fold and then run it through a little bit of the yellow--just inside (quilt side) the stitching and then run it back through a bit of the red--in the fold. Also I usually run a few stitches and then pull them tight, then run a few, then pull them tight. Don't make your thread too long or it will get tangled up easier.

Ready for the reveal? This is the quilt finished. Ready for the bed! (p.s. You do not need to tack down the diagonal starting/stopping point. It's fine left as is.) Sheesh, the top corner doesn't even look perfect--I should have folded that one better--or taken a picture of a different corner.